The Balkan Route and the Contras of Kosovo
by Heather Cottin
[Kosovo; Yugoslavia]

It was perfectly clear to the West that the Kosovo Liberation Army, which was neither for liberation, nor an army, was financed by the drug trade. "It's not as though they're the military wing of a democratic resistance movement," said Senator Mitch McConnell (Rep.- Ky.) in 1998.1 The Kosovo Albanians are tied to Albanians whom the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) identified, as early as 1985, as key to the "Balkan Connection," supplying from 25 to 40 percent of the heroin in the U.S.2 It was already clear then that the Albanian drug traffickers were "fighting to achieve annexation to Albania, ...funding the anti- Serb movement [and] favoring independence for Kosovo."3 By November 1994, the London Guardian called the Kosovo Albanian drug cartel "the Medellin of the Balkans."4

When, in 1997, Albania "erupted into nationwide riots over failed pyramid schemes ... citizens stormed police stations and looted over one million guns," many of which fell into the hands of Albania's criminal gangs.5 The activities of crime clans were protected by Albanian President Sali Berisha and promoted by Kosovo Albanian crime lord Agim Gashi.6 In 1997, the London Guardian commented on the role of Albanian Kosovars in the drug and prostitution business. They "have become so powerful they have even taken over the Calabrians in strength and influence."7 The DEA noted that 75 percent of Western European heroin comes from Turkey. The Ankara Daily News, investigating DEA reports, found that four to six metric tons of heroin left Turkey every month for distribution in Western Europe.8 "Turkish [drug] trafficking groups are using Albanians, Yugoslavs, and elements of criminal groups from Kosovo, to sell and distribute their heroin," the DEA in Rome reported, noting, "These Kosovars are financing their war through drug trafficking activities."9

The German Federal Criminal Agency called ethnic Albanians, "the most powerful group in the distribution of heroin in western countries."10 Eighty to ninety percent of the heroin seized in Sweden has been linked to Kosovo drug rings. With low prices and low demand for profits, Kosovo Albanians have "pushed other groups out of competition."11

How did the Kosovo Albanians gain control of this lucrative business? Corriere Della Sera reported in late 1998 on an ongoing investigation conducted by the Special Operations Section (ROS) of the Caribinieri, the Italian national police: "The Turks passed the torch of heroin trafficking to the Albanians without any bloodshed."12 The ROS asserted, "Albanians from Kosovo, [are] ... dangerous traffickers in drugs and arms. They are determined, violent men."13 The Milan daily quoted Kosovo Albanian drug lord Agim Gashi, whose telephone conversation was wiretapped by the ROS: "We have discovered that drugs are not only a source of wealth but a tool in the struggle to weaken Christendom."14 These were the people "fighting to achieve annexation to Albania, and who ... favor independence for Kosovo."15 The paper reported in early 1999 on a police wiretap of Gashi urging Turkish heroin suppliers to move their drugs in violation of the rules of Ramadan in order to "submerge Christian infidels in drugs."16

Jane's Intelligence Review this year has pointed out that Kosovo Albanians hold the largest share of the heroin market in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Norway, and Sweden.17 On March 24, the very day that NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, the Times of London reported on a Europol document prepared for European interior and drug ministers on the connection between the KLA and Albanian drug rings.18

The drug trade in the Balkans generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Although American media reports coming out of Kosovo before and during the NATO war worried about the penury of Kosovo Albanian "freedom fighters," the KLA did not have to conduct bake sales to raise money for their arms. "Kosovo Albanians used drug money to buy weapons in Italy [and] sent them to Kosovo," Agence France- Presse reported in June 1999.19

Western sources knew that the drugs- for- arms trade was flourishing. The European Union in Brussels in 1994 published a report saying that traffickers from Macedonia and Kosovo paid for weapons with heroin.20 Jane's Intelligence Review noted the link between Albanian criminal gangs, who distribute heroin, and Central Asians, who supply heroin and get weapons by raiding the armories of the former U.S.S.R., "a multi- billion dollar enterprise."21 In June, State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin said with a straight face that the U.S. government "never identified credible evidence of drug running charges."22 But the London Daily Telegraph wrote in April that Christopher Hill, U.S. chief negotiator and architect of the Rambouillet Agreement, was a "strong critic of the KLA for its alleged dealings in drugs."23

Many in the U.S. press in 1999 worried that the KLA could not get sufficient arms to pursue their "liberation struggle," despite the fact that New York Times Balkan bureau chief, Chris Hedges, in 1998 had reported that the KLA had an "inexhaustible supply line."24 As the number of heroin addicts in the West increased, thanks to greater availability and lower prices, it is no wonder that the Kosovo Liberation Army had an inexhaustible supply of arms and cash. By turning a blind eye to the Kosovo Albanian drug trade, the U.S. enabled the KLA to prevail in Kosovo.

Though the KLA won no significant battles against the Yugoslav Army,25 when the war was over, Madeleine Albright forced a provision in the peace agreement allowing the KLA to become, in effect, the army of Kosovo.26 Albright's frantic lobbying on behalf of this KLA demand belied Pentagon insistence that the U.S. was not trying to rebuild the KLA. The goal, according to Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon, is "not to rebuild the KLA family ... with ties to the Mafia."27

Now, a newer, stronger KLA rules Kosovo. Heroin trafficking on the Balkan Route was interrupted for that brief period when the Yugoslav Federal Army swept into Kosovo to remove KLA strongholds, during the ground war. Thanks to NATO bombs, the drug supply routes are now reopened. "‘We are negotiating with NATO, and negotiations are going very smoothly because the alliance does not have any intention of disarming us,' said Jakup Krasniqi, Kosovo government spokesman. ‘We are proceeding ... to turn into something different from a broad guerrilla movement. Our plan is to turn into a police force designed to exercise oversight over all of Kosovo.... A part of our movement could turn into a republican guard, and also we hope to become the regular army in Kosovo.'"28

Washington attempted to cover up the criminal activities of Kosovo Albanians who are now in power in Kosovo. The administration "turned a blind eye to the influx of mercenaries and financing from Islamic fundamentalist organizations."29 In May, Foreign Affairs noted that the KLA was "led by the sons and daughters of rightist Albanian fighters, ... heirs of those who fought in World War II fascist militias,"30 and the notorious Skanderbeg Division, which slaughtered Jews, Serbs, and Roma people between 1941 and 1945. Even Richard Gelbard, U.S. special envoy to Bosnia, described the KLA as "without any question, a terrorist group."31 KLA terror, which has been well documented since NATO bombing ended, forced 200,000 Serbs and Roma out of the province. The West publicly denounces the murders and mayhem KLA forces now in control in Kosovo are wreaking. But U.S. and NATO spokesmen justify this ethnic cleansing as understandable revenge. Kosovo is now nearly ethnically pure Albanian, with a virtually non- existent border with Albania.

The KLA is the United States' new best friend in the Balkans. They have taken over all civil institutions, ministries, public utilities, schools, hospitals, and government buildings, as well as federally owned mines, factories, and Serb private property. Drug runners, pimps, terrorists, reactionary Islamic fundamentalists, neo- fascists: These are the heroes of the KLA.

With a boost from the CIA,32 and a climactic NATO military intervention, the KLA went from a "terrorist" organization to the reigning power in Kosovo. That the CIA may also be involved in the Balkan Route drug trafficking is not unlikely. Its complicity in trafficking by Afghanistan's mujahedin, Haiti's Frappe, Nicaragua's contras, and the bands operating in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle has already been established. The modus operandi is the same. The Kosovo Albanian Mafia's drugs- for- arms trade and reliance on terrorism proved to be reliable tools of American foreign policy, creating another United States criminal protectorate in the Balkans.

Endnotes:

Heather Cottin is a history teacher, chair of the Long Island Jewish- Serbian Friendship Society, opponent of NATO expansion, long- time activist, and widow of Sean Gervasi.

1._New York Times, Mar. 25, 1998.

2._Wall Street Journal, Sept. 9, 1985.

3._Ibid.

4._The Guardian (London), Nov. 1, 1994.

5._Jeffrey Fleishman, "Italy Battling a New Wave of Criminals: Albanians," Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar. 15, 1999.

6._Ibid.

7._The Guardian (London), Mar. 25, 1997.

8._Ankara Daily News, Mar. 5, 1997.

9._Op. cit., n. 5.

10._Roger Boyes and Eske Wright, "Drug Money Linked to Kosovo Rebels," The Times (London), Mar. 24, 1999.

11._Elizabet Andresson, "Heroin Seized from the East," Svenska Dagbladet (Stockholm), June 22, 1998.

12._Roberto Ruscica, "Albanian Mafia: This is how it helps Kosovo Guerrilla Fighters. Drug traffickers in Germany, Spain, France, and Norway: Kosovo Albanians," Corriere Della Sera (Milan), Oct. 15, 1998.

13._Ibid.

14._Ibid.

15._Ibid.

16._"Crimes Committed in Italy Provide Funds for Kosovo Guerrillas," Corriere Della Sera, Jan. 19, 1999.

17._George Szamuely, "A World Made Safe for Kleptocracy," New York Press, July 13, 1999, quoting Jane's Intelligence Review.

18._Op. cit., n. 10.

19._John David Powell, Morrock News Service, quoting Agence France- Presse, June 29, 1999.

20._Vladimire Alexe, "Albanian Terrorists of KLA Pay for Weapons in Heroin," Romania Libre, July 30, 1998.

21._Op. cit., n. 17.

22._Op. cit., n. 19.

23._Philip Smucker and Tim Butcher, "Shifting Stance over KLA has Betrayed Albanians," Daily Telegraph (London), Apr. 18, 1999.

24._Chris Hedges, New York Times, July 11, 1998.

25._Matthew Kaminski and John Reed, "NATO Link to KLA Rebels may have helped seal Victory," Wall Street Journal, July 6, 1999.

26._Steven Meyers, "NATO to Consider letting Kosovars set up New Armies as Rebels Agree to Disarm," New York Times, June 22, 1999.

27._Paul Watson, "A Dispatch from Kosovo, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1999.

28._Fabrizio Roncone, "We Will be the New Kosovar Army," Corriere Della Sera, June 19, 1999.

29._Daily Telegraph, Dec. 29, 1993.

30._Chris Hedges, "Kosovo's Next Masters, Foreign Affairs, May/June 1999.

31._Agence France- Presse, Feb. 23, 1998.